Equal Rites

On the surface of it I should love Discworld novels, but for some reason I've never been able to get into them. But I think I've worked out why .... Many years ago I was stuck in an airport waiting for hours and hours for a flight and out of desperation I bought a book almost at random. That book was The Colour of Magic. To be truthful, I didn't think all that much of it probably because I was rather annoyed and upset at having to waste the best part of a day.

So, unfortunately that was as far as I got with Discworld books. But following on from the sad news of Pratchett's death I thought I'd give them another go. This time starting off on a different thread of stories beginning with Equal Rites (1987). Equal Rites was Pratchett's third novel but his first Witches story

I'm not going to run through the plot, suffice to say that the clue is in the title: a wordplay on the phrase “Equal Rights”. The premise is rather original and fresh; why shouldn't a girl become a wizard despite the misogynistic cultural expectations that she shouldn't?

The main protagonist, Esk is only eight years old. I'm not quite sure why Pratchett chose someone so young? Did he want the book to appeal to an adolescent audience? I'm not sure, but Esk acts more like a young adult. I suppose the charm of the tale lies in the fact Esk is rather innocent which leads to all manner of sticky situations. The main problem here is that Esk manages to overcome most of these by using the magic staff. Sometimes not having an obvious means of escape from certain situations is more enjoyable for the reader as the author has to become inventive instead of lazily using supernatural means.

The other main protagonist, Granny Weatherwax, while being a witch tends not to use magic all that often rather she uses a version of psychology called headology which I thought was a neat twist and a clever idea.

I felt that the characters were more developed than what I'd expect and Equal Rites seemed to have a structure to it: a start, middle and end. I felt that the one book I'd read before was just a series of amusing events which kind of blended into some sort of narrative. By the end of the book I'd worked out that Pratchett's characterizations are perhaps more important that the story? I'm not sure if other readers would agree with me or not?

But saying that the book, as you would expect, is full of humour and insights into human weaknesses and faults. I guess at the time of writing this Pratchett was still finding his feet as an author, but you wouldn't know as it's a polished effort which is entertaining throughout.

Pratchett plays around with feminine and masculine expectations and highlights gender gaps in simple but effective ways. While he makes hazy generalisations which may be a little too broad for some he's especially critical of the stuffy kind of academic elitism which exists within certain male dominated institutions.

So in summary, I'm pleased that I decided to pick up a Pratchett book again. Equal Rites was a quick and easy read which was a lot of fun. The characters were especially interesting and well developed and I'd be happy to recommend Equal Rites as a jumping off point for anyone who wants to try to get into Pratchett's work for the first time.